October 5, 2004

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Hope all is well with each of you. It seems impossible that Fall is here. For us in Brazil that means our Summer is here.

Things are doing great and we are really excited. For a long time the Lord has laid it on my heart to start a new work in the city of Iguacu Falls. Last month we were able to send Pastor Edson and his family to visit the city for 10 days. They were really excited with their visit, and are looking forward to going there to work. They already spotted out a place to rent. The central Baptist church in Garca has already voted to send them out under the authority of that church. We are making plans for them to move there on January 2, 2005. Please pray for this new work and how God would have you be a part of it. Two other countries can be reached from this city in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. It is a wonderful mission field of opportunities to reach people.

We now have 132 kids in the home. Every day we receive calls form all over the state of Sao Paulo and other places in Brazil asking for help. The need for helping children is great. But we are low in the number of helpers we have and low in our finances. A few days ago we received a young kid called Juliano. A car pulled up and said the had a court order to leave the kids at the home. He was from a city about 1 hour away, That is not how it works. Usually the court or social worker calls us and asks us if we can take them. We called the judge in our town and asked if we had to take him since it was a court order. The Judge said he knew the judge from the city and that he would call and see what was going on. Well to make a long story short, Juliano had been taken to court for the judge to see and while he was there he started breaking everything in that was in his reach. He also had beaten his mom. Any time he wanted something and he didn't get it he would break things up. He was especially good at breaking windows. The judge said we didn't have to keep him, but needless to say we kept him. We want those that need the most help. His family tried to keep him doped to keep him under control. When we got him we took him off of any kind of controlled medication. That is hard but you just have to be patient and give time for the mind to get back to it self. With lots of love and some discipline Juliano has come a long ways in less than a month.

Our 3 boys, Kathy and I our in the U.S. for a short break. Kathy was really needing a break. We will be attending conferences while we are here and visiting some churches. We will be here for 2 months. If you would like to contact us, we can be reached at this number (812-453-0694). It is a blessing to have raised our children on the field and see them have the same passion for the kids as we do. We are able to be here for this amount of time because our son and his wife Carrie were willing to stay at the home. Also Amelia and Her husband who just got married 2 months ago moved back from Manaus to work with us. God also Gave us our nephew David Hatcher and his Wife to help while we were here. David's wife had worked with us for 4 years and loves the children and the work. Also, Becca Atkins a young lady from St. Charles, Mo. took a semester out of college to help while we are gone. Pray for them as they do this great task. That God will guide the each step of the way. All of these are there with no pay. They have given up everything to be our right hand to serve the best they can.

Love,

Odali and Kathy

Pastor Steve Wainright with some of the children at Alpha and Omega.